Improvement in apparatus for heating brewers  boilers



D. S. BLAIR.

Mash Heater.

Patented Dec. 22, 1863.

Inventor:

Witnesses= NiTE STATES DAVID S. BLAIR, OF ALBANY, NEW YORK.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 40,5190, dated December 22, 1863.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID S. BLAIR, of the city of Albany, State of New York, have invented anew and useful method of constructing and arranging pipes or flLK'S for the trans mission of steam or heated air in and through brewers boiling-vats, where it is necessary to move the said pipes for the purpose of cleaning out the vats between succeeding charges of wort, or for other analogous purposes; and I do hereby declare the following specification, with the drawings forming part of it, to be a full and complete description of my invention.

Figure 1 represents in plan a brewers vat, with the arrangement and connection of the pipes with it. Fig. 2 represents in section the form and construction of the workingjoints of the pipes. Fig. 3 represents, in profile section, a vat with the pipes raised. up from their horizontal position.

Similar letters in all the figures denote the same parts of the apparatus.

As a substitute for the very large copper boilers used in breweries for the purpose of boiling the wort during the brew ing process, wooden vats, heated by steam conveyed by a congeries of pipes through the wort, has been substituted as an important matter of economy both in the cost of the boilers and in the expense of fuel. As these pipes must be placed some distance above the bottom of the vat, and to be of serviceindistributing economical their heat must lie with their ranks or coils as near to each other as is consistent with room for a due circulation of the material to be boiled, it is impossible to obtain access to the bottom of the vat for the purpose of clearing and cleansing it (which is an operation necessary to be performed between every fresh charge of wort) without removing the pipes from their position and then replacing them for a succeeding boiling. As this process occurs in active breweries several times a day the performance of this operation would be tedious and expensive if the pipes had to be disconnected from the boiler-pipes and removed from the vat. Hence, methods have been devised to permit the pipes to be turned up edgewise upon some one of the pipes of a group acting as an axis to it, but as yet nothing has been put in use that can be maneuvered promptly without requiring the separation of the pipes fromtheir external connections with the boiler supplying the heated steam every time that the vat is to be cleansed.

The object of this invention is to establish a connection of the pipes within the vat with the boiler by a single adit and exit pipe in such manner as to allow the pipe-sto be raised up from their horizontal position, so as to permit access to the bottom of the vat at any moment without recourse to any disconnection of the apparatus.

A is the shell or wall of the vat; B B the pipes for the circulation of steam, lying horizontall y a short distance above the bottom of the vat; 0 C the entrance and exit pipes, by which the steam from the boiler is passed through the vat. These pipes are secured by flanges a a firmly to the shell with their axes in line. Pipes D D open at the end, and just so much smaller in diameter as to pass smoothly within the pipes 0 G are entered a small distance within them and extend a short distance outside of them. They are united together by a shaft, S, which, with D D can turn freely within pipes O 0 Over C C and D I) are short sleeves E E whose ends are fitted as stuffing-boxes, as shown by the drawings, the packing P P preventing the passage of steam from the pipes, excepting by the regular channels. From these sleeves F, project nozzles G G which are connected with pipes 13 by coupling-screws and nuts I) b,and steam passes from O G into and from the sleeves through orifices e ein the pipes. From pipes D D project nozzles H H which are connected with pipes B bycoupling-screws and nuts 00. The sleeves and pipes may be secured to each other by soldering or other fastening, instead of by screws and nuts. Instead of single circulating-pipes several may be attached to the sleeves E E and pipes D D It will be seen that by this construction pipes B, by their sleeves E E can turn freely upon pipes G G as their axes; also, that pipes B can turn freely with their pipes D D within pipes G 0 and that at all times, under any position of the pipes, steam entering in at G will pass by nozzle G into pipe B, and by nozzle G2 out at pipe 0 also, by nozzle H into pipe 13 and out at C and vice versa, consequently, that the pipes can be raised into the position shown at Fig. 3 at any time without disarran gin g the flow of steam through the pipes or permitting its escape from any place but the exit-pipe; also, that asthe movements of the pipes are about the pipes (1 G which are permanently secured to the sides of the vat, they are independent of any connection of those pipes with the steamboiler at one pipe or an exit-pipe at the other.

Although the above arrangement is peculiarly adapted to wooden vats, it is intended for application to metal boilers as well, and not only to brewers vats, but to boilers of any kind.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The peculiar arrangement by which separate and independent congeries of pipes or fines for the circulation of steam or hot-air through avessel containing liquids can be so fitted upon central axis-pipes as to permit any of the said congeries to be turned upon its axis to any degree without interrupting the regular flow of steam or air or its escape, excepting, by its regular exit-passage, the apparatus, consisting of the pipes 0 0 secured to the side of the vat A as ingress and egress passages for steam or hot air, the sleeves E E with packed joints, connecting pipes B with C (l /the pipes D D entering into the ends of pipes C G and connecting them with pipes E the pipes O O and D D being axes on which the separate congeries of pipes B B revolve, substantially as described.

DAVID S. BLAIR. v *itnesses:

A. V. DE WI'rT, I l-trcrin. VARIOK DE WIT r. 

